ABSTRACT
Fredric Cheyette was a professor he takes a different tack by constructing a typology of the uses of the word 'feudalism' and its role in the Whig narrative of progressive history. Fredric Cheyette takes a different tack by constructing a typology of the uses of the word 'feudalism' and its role in the Whig narrative of progressive history. As Elizabeth Brown shows, the use of the term 'feudalism', as well as related terms, provided simplified, clear shorthand for complex customs and laws as early as the sixteenth century. Cheyette shows that two historiographical definitions of feudalism, and other is based on an understanding of the relationship between lord and vassal, and one based in the social economy of the manor. Over time, the term 'feudal system' became a handy repository for anything that was confusing, antiquated, irrational, or simply out of place, a function that it still performs, especially in popular culture.
